VANCEBORO – This West Craven baseball team is familiar with adversity – but not huge expectations.

This season, the Eagles are expected by many to compete for the Coastal 3A Conference championship, largely due to 10 returning seniors.

“I’m excited to have all that experience back, with 10 seniors, seven of which are starters. We should be very good,” West Craven coach Mike McKeel said.

“They’ve all been working very hard and doing morning workouts and pushing each other. I think they are ready to play for each other and play for West Craven.”

The Eagles dealt with plenty of off-the-field troubles last year to last them a lifetime, but persevered through it all to make the playoffs.

In the first round, they fell to tradition-rich Eastern Wayne, 3-2.

West Craven returns its three leading hitters from last season in centerfielder Logan Nobles, catcher Hunter Hackney and second baseman Tyler Williams, who is moving to shortstop.

The Eagles will also be strong on the mound with Nobles, Michael Coombs, Justin Taylor and Josh Pate.

“I think we are all ready to have our best years this year as seniors,” Williams said.

“For me, moving to shortstop and the other side of the field will be different, seeing the ball differently off the bat, but I’m going to play my best for my teammates and I know they will for me too.”

Nobles and Hackney both committed to play baseball at the next level, but still feel they have a lot to prove.

“We have a bad taste in our mouths from losing in the first round of the playoffs last year,” Hackney said.

“We want to advance further into the playoffs this season. Practice has been going a lot smoother this year and we all want to win pretty badly.”

West Craven opens the season at Farmville Central Wednesday.

The Eagles have a tough non-conference schedule, and play some high-quality teams in conference.

“We play in a tough conference with South Central and D.H. Conley, and we definitely believe that we can compete for the conference title.” McKeel said.

“I think the guys’ main goal is getting further in the postseason. I think the biggest key for us is just to stay healthy.”

Two of the Eagles’ best pitchers Michael Coombs and Nobles are bouncing back from injuries.

“We have the expectations to be better, but we also expect ourselves to be better,” Nobles said.

“We are just going to go into every game and every at bat and take advantage of it and make the most out of it.”

Nobles is headed to Wake Tech after the high school season and Hackney will be the backstop of the future at St. Andrews.

Jordan Honeycutt can be reached at 252-635-5670 or at Jordan.Honeycutt@newbernsj.com. Follow Jordan on Twitter @JHONEYnbsj29